The present invention relates to drying a shoe, and more particularly, to a system and process for drying a shoe, for example a leather shoe.
Many people clean their athletic shoes in a conventional clothes washing machine. This process, known as immersion cleaning, induces higher water retention than typically incurred in normal wear activities such as rain or snow. Immersion cleaning processes, hereby incorporated herein by reference, are described in pending U.S. application Ser. Nos. 60/202,291 filed May 5, 2000; 60/161,240 filed Oct. 22, 1999; 60/161,187 filed Oct. 22, 1999; 60/161,151 filed Oct. 22, 1999; 60/161,118 filed Oct. 22, 1999; 60/198,019 filed Apr. 18, 2000; and 60/198,507 filed Apr. 18, 2000. Although processes and systems have been developed for drying processes. Thus, there is a need for a device that is capable of efficiently drying a shoe, for example a leather shoe, that has undergone an immersion cleaning process.
One of the problems associated with drying a shoe that has undergone an immersion cleaning process is that the known processes are often slow and sometimes require extended drying times. For example, one of the more common means of drying a shoe is through a device that forces hot air into the shoe""s interior. This type of device can require two or more hours to wearably dry a shoe that has been immersed. Therefore, it would be desirable to reduce the drying time for shoes that have undergone an immersion cleaning process and have retained high levels of water.
A similar problem associated with drying shoes is that most processes dry the interior of the shoe without regard to drying the exterior surface of the shoe. An undried exterior shoe surface can undesirably make the shoe more prone to re-soiling and consequently require additional wash treatments. This puts the shoe at risk for unnecessary wear and tear. As a result, it is also desirable to dry the exterior surfaces of a shoe, which may aid in prolonging its life.
Finally, conventional clothes dryers are sometimes used after the immersion cleaning process to facilitate the drying of a shoe. The disadvantage of this known drying process, especially with respect to leather shoes, is that the dryer promotes unnecessary wear and tear on the shoe through degradation of shoe quality, undesirable changes in appearance or shrinkage. Consequently, it would be desirable to reduce the negative effects associated with the shoe drying process.
In sum, it would be advantageous to have a system and/or process that reduces the drying time for a shoe. It would also be advantageous to have a system and/or process that satisfactory dries the outside surface of the shoe. Lastly, it would be advantageous to have a system and/or process that reduces negative effects associated with conventional drying processes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved systems, processes and apparatuses for drying a shoe. More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide systems, processes and apparatuses for reducing the drying time associated with shoes that have been subjected to an immersion cleaning process. In one embodiment of the present invention, a shoe drying system comprises a fan operable to produce an air flow, a heating element and at least one duct having at least one outlet, which is adapted to direct a portion of the air flow into a shoe. Additionally, the shoe drying system provides a drying effectiveness of at least 70 g/hr within the first hour of drying.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a process for drying a shoe comprises the steps of providing a shoe and providing a drying system. The drying system comprises a fan operable to produce an airflow, a heating element and at least one duct having at least one outlet. Next, the duct is inserted into the shoe and an airflow is directed to the interior of the shoe. Additionally, the drying system has a drying effectiveness of at least 70 g/hr within the first hour of drying.
One advantage of certain embodiments of the present invention is that they provide for accelerated drying of a shoe that has undergone an immersion cleaning process. For example, in the specific embodiments described herein, the shoe drying systems and processes reduce the time to wearably dry shoes. In specific embodiments, the systems and processes also dry the exterior of a shoe and reduce negative effects associated with most known processes.